"Apply the locomotive brake first for a smoother stop."

>>83375 That locomotive is our display locomotive at the station that we open up and let people in (supervised). I guess this guy has never heard of slack action.

>>83378
I'm surprised you have. Trolleys don't have much slack action...

/rail/..slack-action

>mfw

>>83381
When I die, I'm going to hell. When I ask why I went to hell, laughing at your comment is probably going to be one of the reasons.

[Preparing for imminent shitstorm]

Twin Cities-Sioux City-Omaha. Heck, extend it to Kansas City, and make a connection with the Southwest Chief. Build a network.

If CSX's dickery wasn't an issue, I'd consider re-extending the Sunset Limited past Nawlins through the Gulf Coast to North Florida. It doesn't have to go all the way to Miami like it used to. Just to Jacksonville or Orlando.

Speaking of the Gulf Coast, reinstate the Gulf Breeze segment of the Crescent, from B-Ham to Mobile.

An on the Crescent, bring back that "Crescent Star" segment that branched off from Meridian to Dallas. I don't know what happened to that route.

Oh, and bring back those regional Midwest trains like the Black Hawk and Prairie Marksman.

>>83160 I don't know if there's enough potential ridership to reinstate the Gulf Breeze or not. During the summer I imagine there'd be beach traffic, but outside of that I'm not sure.

I would have suggested the Meridian-Dallas connection with the Crescent, but the only problem is that I can't see transfers to the northbound City or Eagle being feasible without some massive schedule dickery.

Hmm. I want Hoboken-Scranton, but that's not gonna get finished in a hurry. I say fuck SEPTA and run new Philadelphia-Allentown service.

>>83180

And connecting with the Flyer? Forget about it! Even if it was possible, you still have to travel from one city another by some other means.

Desert Wind.

1. OKC-Tulsa-Springfield MO- St Louis
2. the Black Hawk, but it's coming back in 2014 anyway due to new state and fed funding. CN is rebuilding their tracks now.

>>83071

I retract everything in my statement that would involve Amtrak using CSX rails. That shit is a disaster waiting to happen. And by disaster I mean poor people getting killed on da trainz yo.

>mfw CSX makes 15 mph track speed and doesn't derail on a mainline

>>83160

The track is there and better than before. Amtrak simply does not want to run the train. So, eternal annulment.

Arizona and California RR trackage!

Because EVERYONE wants to ride from Cadiz, CA to Parker, AZ.

>>83054

>A railroad isn't abandoned and out of use until the paperwork says it is!

And the rails are torn up, the roadbed excavated, and they put a building on the real estate.

cram rats into a box and fights will ensue

>>83058

God damn it Pacific Electric.

>>83067

This always makes me think of Roger Rabbit.

Top picture right now on RP.net.

Blue line train in Pacific Electric livery.

>>83371

>trolly-pole on messenger-wire

where is your god now

>>83374
Not on the messenger wire, bro.

>>83374 Riding the Skokie Swift, apparently.

>>83379
Is that a Pantapole or a Trolleygraph?

>>83245

Alrighty. The only other lead I've got is the title of a book called "The Dragon and the Iron Horse: The Economics of Railroads in China, 1876-1937 (Harvard East Asian Monographs)", which fuck all if I can find it anywhere except for Amazon, and they've only got one left in stock there right now.

IIRC, the first railroad in China was laid by British traders during the Qing Dynasty. Since then, it's been developed by the Nationalists, Communists, and, in some parts, the Japanese (who themselves got the idea for rail transportation from white foreigners).

>>83254

I read somewhere that one of the first delegations to Shogunate Japan brought the Emperor a locomotive and a loop of track. The Emperor loved it to death.

Never read it, but it sounds promising...

Book Description The world seems to grow smaller every day. Travelers cross oceans and continents in the blink of an eye. But the world is not so small that there is no room left for adventure and discovery. In Riding The Iron Rooster Paul Theroux invites you to join him on the journey of a lifetime― a journey in the grand romantic tradition.

Vowing to reach the other side of the world without jet lag, Theroux began his odyssey in London. He traveled by train across Europe, through the vast underbelly of Asia, and into the heart of Russia. But the crown jewel of his journey was China itself. Here is a magnificent land and an extraordinary people as you have never before known them: China by rail, as seen and heard through the eyes and ears of one of the most intrepid and insightful travel writers of our time.

Discover more, perhaps to your liking...

http://www.paultheroux.com/index.html

Ol' Paul has been around for awhile in the fancy coffee table train book field. Good luck on your search.

>>83276
>>83277

Thank you, but while Paul Theroux is a brilliant travel author-- The Old Patagonian Express is something I like to read on any trip-- his writings' aren't really that scholarly in terms of research, citations, etc., tending instead towards colorful descriptions of people and places he meets on his journeys, with a little pop-history of the locales as he passes by.

I've managed to track down a couple books in the general area of what I wanted since yesterday:
-Manchurian Railways and the Opening of China
-China, Railways and Agricultural Development, 1875-1935
-Woosung Road: The Story of China's First Railway

I also found one pretty neat primary source in Google Books, with the long title of "Railways in China: Report upon the feasibility and most effectual means of introducing railway communication into the empires of China". That was published in 1864, 12 years before the first Chinese railway began operations, so I'm interested in what the Brits were thinking back then.

Comment too long. Click here to view the full text.

>>83274

I've heard the same story. Not sure how true it is, but it makes sense. The rest, as they'd say, was history.

>I'm interested in what the Brits were thinking back then.

Aside from "we must get all this tea, silks, and exotic goods from the inland to the seaport expeditiously and in large quantities"? Who knows?

>>83282
Interesting citation!

http://www.archive.org/details/railwaysinchina00stepgoog

Fuck Google. They've finally shown their hand: all their 'good will' in digitizing all those books is now a cheap springboard to having a big catalog for their android market. Luckily, Archive.org has apparently (automatedly?) liberated all of google's scans into epub, txt, &c.

Okay, I take that back partly. Google is using their snitched public domain content as a lure, but they do have a download link you don't need to be logged in for. They hid it, I think, though.

Here's the PDF: http://www.sendspace.com/file/k95ts9

>Yurop
>obscenely cold
>Here
>37°F/3 °C

We've had maybe two inches of accumulation all winter, and that melted away weeks ago.

This has been the shittiest winter.

Europe, kwitcherbichin. 'round these parts, we barely need a shirt for that weather. Let me know if it stays below -15°C for a week. It's not truly cold until the vodka freezes.

>>83314

Which one of the SDG lines is this?

For the most of winter this year, Chicago has been most pleasant.

Picture related in comparison to how this year's winter feels like.

>>83319

Same here. And I'll be moving to where you need a parka when it's 40 out, and FEMA has to be called every time there's so much as an inch on the ground.

>>83321

I'm letting you know. We have -20 for over a week, day -15, today night was -25 and it's getting colder.
Not much snow, though. My car still starts, even if its an American one. Maybe because it has Japanese engine.

Also, the winter scale:
+ 20°C Greeks put on sweaters (if they can find them).
+ 15°C Hawaiians turn on the heaters (if they have them).
+ 10°C Americans begin to shiver with cold. Russians are planting cucumbers.
+ 5°C You can see your breath. Italian cars don't start. Norwegians are bathing in the lake.
0°C Water freezes in America. In Russia, water thickens.
- 5°C French cars don't start.
- 15°C. The cat insists he will sleep with you in bed. Norwegians put on sweaters.
- 17.9°C Norwegians turn on heating. Russians are going to their villas for the last time in the season.
- 20°C American cars don't start.
- 25°C German cars don't start. Jamaicans perished.
- 30°C Russians wear T-shirts. Need cables to start the car. The cat is sleeping in your pajamas
- 35°C Too cold to think. Japanese cars don't start.
- 39°C Mercury freezes. Swedish cars don't start.
- 42°C In Europe, transport is not working. Russians are eating ice cream on the street.

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>>83364
Mmmmkay... if you ever want to go foaming in America, you know what to expect.

Now for PCCs! Here's 608 at the Seashore Trolley Museum, in its factory delivered paint scheme. Rumor has it that the DR&T officials asked PCC for a suggestion for a new paint scheme to put on the PCCs, and they based the lines off of Pacific Electric's colors. By the time the line shut down, all the PCCs had been painted in the red and white colors.

616 is looking snazzy rolling through Oak Lawn. Dallas was one of the few cities to order PCCs that were double ended for route flexibility. The only other city I can think of off the top of my head who also ordered these was Toronto.

612 is seen here flying along from Downtown Dallas to Oak Cliff. Rumor has it that when the PCCs were delivered to Dallas, a high ranking Motorman and a few DR&T officials wanted to take it out for a test. Supposedly they got up to 60 mph on this bridge. However, PCCs were only geared to do 50 mph, so that makes the story unlikely.

Found a few more, so I apologize for them being out of order.

Here's a double truck Birney, 123, and a PCC, 612, somewhere along Cole Avenue.

A higher res photo of DR&T 623 heading towards Fair Park. The black sign hanging on the front is advertising a baseball game occurring soon, and that DR&T can take you straight to the ballpark.

DR&T ran an ad in the Dallas Morning News to advertise the arrival of the new PCCs. Here's 601 wearing the Pacific Electric knock-off scheme.

I feel this is an appropriate end to the thread - modified Peter Witt car 772 is being followed by a diesel bus. Trolley buses would replace the streetcars in 1956. In 1966, diesel buses replaced the trolley buses. For 33 years, no streetcars roamed the streets of Dallas until McKinney Avenue Transit was founded.

Thanks for taking the time to look at this. At 28 images, I do believe this is the largest dump I've done yet. If anybody has any more questions feel free to ask me. I have a wealth of online and personal resources to tap if need be.

>>83356
Maybe they goosed the voltage?

Did the DART light rail follow the tradition of other cities and align their ROW in all or part of the previous DR&T infrastructure?

>>83358

Trolley service to the ball game. Now that's nice. You can't even get a bus to a Rangers game now, considering the stadium is in Arlington and the people in that town would rather have a third testicle than public transportation.

>>83361
Quite possibly. I'll give a friend a call tomorrow and see what I can find out.

>>83362

>Did the DART light rail follow the tradition of other cities and align their ROW in all or part of the previous DR&T infrastructure?

I believe that, except for a few parts, DART follows either Dallas Railway & Terminal's old route, or the route of Texas Electric Railway.

>the people in that town would rather have a third testicle than public transportation.

Very, very true. I like that comparison, it made me chuckle.

Have some surviving DR&T operating as God intended - carrying passengers on their daily commute.

Sacramento Northern, however, offers more varied terrain. And it was one of the very few interurbans to offer sleeping car service.

SN even had a car float operation, with wires right on the ferry!

>>83271

Not for a long time, if ever. Effective Friday, I am leaving the state and moving back to Tacoma.

>>83295
By train?

>>83298

I wish. Instead, I'm loading up what I haven't donated nor thrown away into a rental vehicle and driving cross-country. It'll help see if I've got what it takes to be a long-haul trucker or over-the-road coach driver.

>>83300
i knew a guy who went truckin'... worked for Schneider for a couple years, just for the training and experience. Decided he didn't like "the road" lifestyle and switched to driving a gravel truck--quarry work. He seems a lot happier now.

Does anyone have anymore DRAT (DR&T) pics?

I'm pretty sure I still have a lot of them. When I get home I'll check. They will be posted either tonight or in the morning.

>>83325

Dave's Railpix has a small collection. Not as impressive as other catalogues I've seen though.

http://www.davesrailpix.com/odds/tx/tx.htm#drt

As a prospective trucker, I'd have nothing but respect for the grade crossing.

My folks live about 15 miles away from there. From what they were saying (and parental gossip can always be counted on for reliability), seems that it was just a matter of poor judgment and timing on the truckers part, thinking he had just a few more moments to pull through before the gates went down.

Aftermath video:
http://youtu.be/el6iFvzBrVM

According to the youtube description the truck driver got out of his vehicle to see if his low-boy trailer got stuck on the crossing. While doing this the crossing activated and the rest is history.

Looked up the FRA records for this crossing. DOT crossing 545271M, Portage Rd. http://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/OfficeofSafety/PublicSite/Crossing/Crossing.aspx

No hump signs for the crossing according to the records.

WTF mate?!

If you drive half the fucking way across something and stop right in the fucking middle to check not only are you incompetent, negligent, ignorant, and moronic, your a retard.

I'm gonna drive my boat out into the ocean then get out of the boat in the middle of the ocean to see how deep the water is. You never know brah I might get washed ashore.

>>83323

He bottomed out? Damn, that sucks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CCEERi7c0A

no

also sage

Oh facepalm. What a wonderful way to make your grand return.

sage
IF I LIKED SCREAMING BABIES I'D FLY MORE OFTEN!

0/10

Troll harder.

>>83217

Is this the Andrew Barclay from the Ayrshire Railway Museum?

>>83217
Super photo,and the memories........not quite that
far North,Durham coalfields,

>>83221
Yes. At which I am a volunteer.

Forget text...

Anyone else got good pictures of Firebox glow?